Lecturer Bios
Robert Horkovich, Esq.
Robert M. Horkovich is "the 'go-to person' in the area of insurance recovery," according to a client cited by Chambers USA, which has recognized Mr. Horkovich as a leading insurance recovery attorney every year since 2005. According to Chambers, Mr. Horkovich “has a strong ‘client-first’ attitude” and “is recognized in the market for his leading trial and negotiation skills, with an undisputed national presence.” In 2025, Bob was named to Benchmark Litigation's Hall of Fame.
Bob has obtained over $8 billion in settlements and judgments from insurance companies for his clients. Bob is a trial lawyer with substantial experience in trying complex insurance coverage actions on behalf of corporate policyholders and governmental entities. His victories include one of the top 10 jury verdicts in the United States, the top insurance recovery jury verdict in the United States, seven landmark state Supreme Court decisions, eight jury verdicts and nine bench trial decisions in favor of the policyholder.
Bob is also a member of Anderson Kill’s White Collar Defense Group. He has extensive experience in antitrust matters, as well in criminal codes and the recovery of stolen assets, and has published extensively on antitrust matters. As a Captain in the USAF JAG Corp., he was a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and in that role prosecuted more than 200 cases. He also was a Special Assistant District Attorney for Manhattan for the purposes of handling and arguing appeals of criminal convictions and successfully argued People v. Octavio Peck before the New York Court of Appeals winning an issue of constitutional law of first impression.
Marshall Gilinsky, Esq.
Marshall Gilinsky is a shareholder in Anderson Kill's Boston office and practices in the firm’s Insurance Recovery and Commercial Litigation groups. Marshall is co-chair of the firm's Sexual Harassment and Abuse Insurance Recovery Group and Sports, Media and Entertainment Group, and a member of the firm's Banking and Lending Group and Restaurant, Retail & Hospitality Group.
During his nearly 30-year career representing policyholders, Marshall has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients, successfully litigating disputed claims under a variety of insurance products, including property and business interruption insurance, commercial general liability (CGL) insurance, errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, directors and officers (D&O) insurance and life insurance. Marshall has represented clients on numerous high-stakes, complex insurance claims arising out of prominent losses such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy and the “Big Dig” in Boston. He also focuses extensively on assisting clients that own and manage captive insurance companies, especially with respect to resolving coverage disputes between the captive and its reinsurers.
Marshall's success in solving clients' problems stems from his ability to understand their businesses – as well as their insurance programs – in order to maximize the value of the clients’ insurance assets. He frequently writes and lectures on a variety of topics of interest to professionals and practitioners in the insurance arena, and is frequently quoted in the press, including appearances in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Law Review, CNN and Business Insurance, among others.
Raymond A. Mascia Jr., Esq.
Raymond A. Mascia Jr. is a shareholder in Anderson Kill’s New York office and co-chairs the firm's Financial Services group. Ray represents corporate and governmental policyholders in all types of insurance recovery matters, including matters involving D&O coverage, professional liability coverage, general liability coverage, environmental and asbestos claims, commercial crime insurance, and first-party property and business interruption losses arising from natural disasters and other perils. Over the course of his career, Ray has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance proceeds for policyholders. He is also a member of the firm's Insurance Recovery and COVID Task Groups.
The Legal 500 United States has recognized Ray as a Next Generation Partner since 2020, as well as a Rising Star in 2019. In 2020, Law360 also recognized Ray as a Rising Star (Insurance), recognizing “attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments transcend their age.”
Ray regularly writes on insurance topics and is a frequent lecturer on insurance coverage issues nationwide, including at insurance conferences and meetings convened by the Risk and Insurance Management Society and the New York City Bar Association.
Ray also has made significant contributions to public service during his career. He left the firm briefly in 2013 to serve a two-year clerkship for the Honorable Joanna Seybert of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a judicial intern to the Honorable A. Kathleen Tomlinson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the Honorable Daniel A. Angiolillo of the New York Appellate Division, Second Department.
During law school, Ray served as Editor-in-Chief of both the St. John’s Law Review and the Journal of Catholic Legal Studies. Ray graduated on the Dean’s List and received the Chief Judge Edward D. Re Commencement Prize for outstanding scholarship and service to the law school.
William G. Passannante, Esq.
William G. Passannante is a nationally recognized authority on policyholder insurance recovery in D&O, E&O, asbestos, environmental, property, food-borne illness, and other insurance disputes, with an emphasis on insurance recovery for corporate policyholders and educational and governmental institutions.
According to clients quoted in Chambers USA, he is touted as, "A terrific policyholder lawyer" and "a tremendous tactician and an incredible trial lawyer." According to Chambers USA, he is the “go-to attorney for high-dollar insurance coverage litigation,” and “knows the industry inside-out.” "Mr. Passannante is well regarded for his client counseling and impressive advocacy, and has the perceptive ability to wade through legalese and identify the most salient and important issues. He relates to his clients with integrity, determination and devotion. He has a good sense of humor and is passionate about his work."
Mr. Passannante is co-chair of Anderson Kill's Insurance Recovery Group. He is also a member of Anderson Kill's Cyber Insurance Recovery Group and the COVID Task Group. He has represented policyholders in major precedent-setting cases argued in trial and appellate courts throughout the country. Law360 recognized Mr. Passannante as 2013 MVP in the Insurance category, and he has been recognized in Chambers USA in every year since 2006 as a leading insurance recovery attorney. The Legal 500 United States consistency includes him on their elite "Leading lawyers" list and he is recommended for Insurance - advice to policyholders. Since 2010, Mr. Passannante has been selected by his peers for listing in The Best Lawyers in America. He has also been rated "AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated," the top rating, 5.0 out of 5.0, by his peers and was also designated a 2020 Top Rated Lawyer as listed in Martindale Hubbell.
He has represented The Glidden Company, The Trustees of Princeton University, The City of Peekskill, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Franchisees of Taco Bell, HLTH Corporation/WebMD, Yum! Brands, Picker International, Weyerhaeuser Company, Occidental Chemical Company, Imperial Chemical Industries, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc., The Lefrak Organization, Quest Diagnostics, Automatic Data Processing, Fleming Companies, Inc., and others.
Mr. Passannante was a drafter of the precedent-setting Weyerhaeuser case in the Supreme Court of the State of Washington, which held that no overt threat against a policyholder is required to trigger insurance policies. Mr. Passannante co-chaired the program "Current Issues in D&O and Professional Liability Insurance" sponsored by the ABCNY and the ABA, and chairs the firm’s annual D&O Insurance Conference.
He has testified before the New York State Legislature regarding the insurance industry response to the victims of terrorist attacks. Mr. Passannante is an editor of the book, "The Policyholder Advisor,” and has published widely including in "Risk Management," "The (ABA) Brief," "Corporate Counsel Magazine," "Policyholder Advisor," "Copyright World," "Healthcare Financial Management," "Insurance Litigation Reporter," and "Mealey's Insurance."
Mr. Passannante is a Regis High School class representative (2006-present), and was a member of the Regis High School Alumni Board (2006-2009) and the school’s Executive Council (1998-2006). Prior to joining Anderson Kill, Mr. Passannante was a Financial, Industrial, and Econometric Consultant with Standard and Poor's/Data Resources, Inc.
Jeff Buzen
Jeff Buzen is a Partner in the US Financial Lines team at McGill and Partners. He focuses on structuring, negotiating, and placing representations and warranties, tax, and contingent liability insurance for corporates and private equity firms.
Jeff began his insurance career in 2014 at an international insurance broker, where he worked on many of the largest and most complex M&A insurance placements in the market. In 2017 he completed a secondment to London.
Jeff is based in New York. If he weren’t working with McGill and Partners, he would be a sports podcaster.
Regan Samson, Esq.
Regan Samson is an attorney in Anderson Kill’s New York office, where she focuses her practice on insurance recovery, exclusively on behalf of policyholders.
Regan represents corporate clients in a wide range of complex insurance matters, including with respect to directors & officers (D&O), representations & warranties (R&W), professional liability, and general liability coverage, as well as environmental and asbestos claims, first-party property and business interruption losses, cyber-related claims, and other specialized risks.
While in law school, Regan served as a Pro Bono Scholar at Lawyers for Children, worked in the ADR Department of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and mediated cases in Manhattan Small Claims Court. She was the recipient of the 2021 Jacob Burns Medal, the 2021 Inspire! Award for Pro Bono Services, and the Dean’s Merit Scholarship at Cardozo School of Law, where she also served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Cardozo Moot Court Honor Society.
Before attending law school, Regan was a professional ballet dancer and participated in educational outreach programs designed to foster creativity and cultural awareness in local communities.
R. Damian Brew
R. Damian Brew is a Managing Director and Claims Advocate in Marsh FINPRO. He specializes in directors and officers, employment practices liability, and professional liability claims and coverage issues. He consults on professional liability claims for many of the firm’s financial institution and commercial clients.
Damian works closely with advisory professionals on policy language and endorsements to obtain the broadest coverage available in the current market. He joined Johnson & Higgins in 1995. Before that, he was Senior Claims Counsel at Continental Insurance Company, where he specialized in commercial and financial institution D&O claims, particularly securities class actions. Before joining Continental in 1991, he handled corporate and litigation matters at Chadbourne & Parke.
Damian has spoken at numerous industry and client seminars on D&O claims handling and the broker’s role in resolving D&O claims. He has also spoken at an ACI seminar on online liability. He holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. from Colgate University, and he is admitted to practice in New York.
Shruti Engstrom
Shruti Engstrom is a Managing Director on Aon’s Cyber Solutions E&O/Cyber Product team, serving Aon’s clients nationally. The team is a resource for Fortune 200 clients, providing bespoke policy language, placement strategy, and claims expertise. Shruti is a trusted advocate and counselor on complex issues throughout the insurance life cycle, from pre-placement discussions through post-claim negotiations.
Before joining Aon in 2021, Shruti was a partner at an Am Law 50 global law firm. Over more than 20 years, she exclusively represented policyholders in protecting and recovering insurance assets. Her clients ranged from Fortune 500 companies to closely held corporations in sectors including energy, healthcare, aviation, construction, chemicals, and financial services. She litigated multimillion-dollar coverage cases in state and federal courts nationwide and arbitrated insurance disputes in London and Bermuda.
Shruti’s deep experience as a policyholder coverage lawyer gives her unique expertise in policy construction and interpretation, coverage legal principles, policyholder advocacy, and risk mitigation strategy. She draws on her litigation background to help clients craft fit-for-purpose policy language. She also advocates for clients throughout the placement, renewal, and claims process.
Jonathan E. Meer
Jonathan Meer is highly experienced in insurance coverage, including monitoring and coverage determinations. He co-chairs his firm’s Insurance Industry Consulting & Drafting Committee. He concentrates on D&O coverage, with an emphasis on D&Os of cannabis companies. He also handles E&O, lawyers professional liability, employment practices, and cyber liability programs.
Jonathan represents primary and excess insurers based in the United States, China, London, and Bermuda. These matters involve high-exposure claims against directors and officers of public and private companies, nonprofit boards, financial institutions, and insurers, including shareholder class actions and high-profile fraud cases. His litigation practice also covers commercial litigation, professional liability, and employment matters. In addition, he advises clients on fair housing matters and helps develop related policies.
Jonathan is a D&O Trend Advisor for PLUS, longtime chair of the New York City Bar Association’s D&O insurance event, and a mentor for female professionals in The Bridge Transcend program. He has spoken at programs sponsored by CLM, ExecuSummit, and the Brokers & Reinsurance Markets Association. He also authored the chapter on U.S. D&O liability exposure in Directors’ Liability and Indemnification: A Global Guide.
Jason Weeks
Jason Weeks is Vice President of Risk Management for Hendrick Automotive Group, the largest privately held automotive retail organization in the United States. The company employs more than 11,000 people across its dealerships, collision centers, and accessories distributor installers in 13 states.
For more than 20 years, Jason has served the risk management needs of the Hendrick companies. These include Hendrick Motorsports, which holds a record 15 car owner championships and the most race wins in the NASCAR Cup Series. That professional sports operation employs more than 900 people and supports four full-time race teams and an advanced manufacturing operation.
Jason began his career as a multi-line claims adjuster with an insurance carrier. He then moved into corporate insurance and risk management at two banks. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina, with a major in Insurance and Risk Management, and has earned the AIC, ARM, and CPCU professional designations.
Evan Shapiro, Esq.
Evan Shapiro is a highly experienced insurance coverage advisor and litigator who advises insurance companies and defends insureds in commercial and professional lines. She advises clients on exposures under public and private company D&O and fiduciary liability policies. These include securities class actions, merger and derivative litigation, and corporate governance matters.
Her broad litigation experience includes representing insurers in coverage disputes and representing parties in business and professional liability actions. Evan also helps clients draft specimen and manuscript policies and specialized endorsements for complex underwriting situations. She assists with underwriting and with developing new insurance products as well.
Evan has authored articles in professional journals on developments in insurance law. She has presented at PLUS and bar association CLE programs on D&O and professional liability coverage. She also leads bespoke in-house forums and training programs for clients, including sessions on best practices for claims handlers, and is an active member of her firm’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Steering Committee.
John Clarke Jr., Esq.
John Clarke Jr. is a partner at DLA Piper and former chair of the firm’s corporate and securities litigation practice. He has several decades of experience leading the defense of complex disputes. These involve securities, merger transactions, trust indentures, structured transactions, and stockholder derivative, bankruptcy, and fraudulent transfer claims.
John has appeared as lead counsel in federal and state courts across the country. These include the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits, the Delaware Court of Chancery, and the Supreme Court of Delaware. His work in financial institution litigation after the global financial crisis led to his service as chair of the New York City Bar’s Banking Law Committee. In that role, he led the committee’s amicus curiae advocacy and its legislative and regulatory comment letters.
Chambers USA and The Legal 500 United States both recognize John for securities litigation. Clients describe him as a “true expert in securities” who is “smart, creative and meticulous.” They also say he is “great on his feet in the courtroom and an excellent writer.”
Rick Swedloff
Rick Swedloff is a Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, where he teaches civil procedure, remedies, and law and economics. His scholarship focuses on insurance law, regulation, and access to the liability system.
Before joining the Rutgers faculty, Professor Swedloff was a litigation associate at Dechert LLP in Philadelphia, specializing in complex commercial, tort, and insurance cases. Before that, he clerked for Judge Walter K. Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Judge Roderick R. McKelvie of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
In recent years, he has written a series of articles on insurance as a regulator of the practice of law at large law firms. He has also written on the risks that emerge when insurers use Artificial Intelligence.
Dan Schuleman
Dan Schuleman is the CEO and founder of Qumis, an AI-powered knowledge platform built for reading and interpreting insurance policies. Inspired by his legal career, he is passionate about creating novel workflow automation and knowledge solutions for insurance professionals.
Before founding Qumis, Dan was the second corporate legal hire at Kin Insurance, a Chicago-based unicorn that sells homeowners insurance directly to consumers. For a transition period, he was also its sole corporate attorney. At Kin, he supported C-suite executives and enabled the company’s growth and compliance. Earlier, he worked at multiple Am Law 200 firms advising global insurance companies on their most complex claims and risks.
Dan has a strong background in property and casualty insurance law and in the legal needs of high-growth, venture-backed startups. He holds a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law and a B.A. with departmental honors from Northwestern University.
